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Red Bulls 4, Crew 1: Woes mount for Crew in dispiriting loss on road

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoJulio Cortez | ASSOCIATED PRESSThierry Henry, right, of the Red Bulls and Bernardo Anor of the Crew compete for the ball in the first half. Henry had a goal and three assists in the game.

When last night’s game began at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., the Crew and New York were tied on points for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

When the final whistle blew, the Crew’s only experienced forward had left because of an injury, its captain had been substituted out for the first time all season, and the Red Bulls’ Thierry Henry had contributed to more goals than the Crew had scored in its past six games.

Final: Red Bulls 4, Crew 1.

The four goals allowed marked a season high for the Crew.

“I can safely say it’s our worst performance of the year,” coach Gregg Berhalter said. “We had the intention to play a good game and really come here and make it difficult, and we did just the opposite. We made it very, very easy for (New York).

“Not to take anything away from them, but the manner in which we conceded goals was amateurish.”

Henry seemed omnipresent, if almost aloof, throughout the game, scoring once and assisting on the other three Red Bulls goals.

The 36-year-old French forward, who is at least five years older than anyone on the Crew’s roster, started a sequence inside the penalty area and earned the assist on Bradley Wright-Phillips’ opening goal in the 17th minute.

When the Crew’s Jairo Arrieta went down and had to be carried off on a stretcher because of a strained left hamstring in the 25th minute, all looked lost. But the Crew rallied.

Rookie forward Adam Bedell pulled the Crew (4-6-8, 20 points) even with the Red Bulls in the 39th minute after Ethan Finlay won the ball from a New York defender and passed to Bedell just outside the Red Bulls’ penalty area. There, Bedell’s right-footed attempt beat goalkeeper Luis Robles for the first goal of his Major League Soccer career.

“You’ve got to be ready,” Bedell said. “I just took it on the hop and was lucky enough to go in. It feels great.”

Six minutes later, Henry’s methodical finish from about 12 yards after Wright-Phillips was twice denied near the goal line put the Red Bulls (5-5-8, 23 points) ahead to stay.

“That was a game-changer for us, for sure,” said Crew midfielder Wil Trapp, who took over as captain after Michael Parkhurst was removed. “We clawed one back, but we were just too soft through the midfield and on crosses. We got opened up, and they exploited us.”

From there, Henry piled on, assisting on Lloyd Sam’s goal in the 56th minute and on Eric Alexander’s in the 91st. By then, Berhalter had pulled Parkhurst in the 59th minute and defender Bernardo Anor was sent off after earning a second yellow card in the 85th.

In seven career games against the Crew, Henry has six goals and five assists.

Crew defenders Giancarlo Gonzalez and Waylon Francis, who were part of Costa Rica’s World Cup team, joined the team early yesterday but were not on the game-day roster of 18 players.